Dow Invests in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

The Dow Chemical Co. awarded Fluor Corp. the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for its reverse osmosis (RO) manufacturing facility in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Located in Jubail Industrial City II at the Sadara Chemical Co. complex, the facility will locally manufacture high-tech RO elements that purify water for drinking and industrial use.

This is Dow’s first facility of its kind built outside the U.S., with expected date of completion by the end of 2015. More than 100 jobs will be created at the facility, which will manufacture a range of RO products including Filmtec brackish water and seawater RO elements. The facility will supply the local Saudi Arabia market as well as the wider Middle East and Africa region and markets with similar critical water needs, including Eastern Europe, India, China and Southeast Asia.

Saudi Arabia faces tremendous water scarcity, and, as a result, represents one of the largest seawater desalination markets in the world. The new facility will not only bring local supply security of water desalination technologies, but also a cost-effective water treatment solution, as desalination via RO has proven to be less energy-intensive compared to traditional thermal methods. RO elements are used for demineralizing brackish water or desalinating seawater for a variety of sectors and industrial applications, including water treatment, power generation, food and beverage processing, municipal desalination and water reuse.

“This state-of-the-art facility will bring enhanced capabilities and capacity to Dow’s RO business in Saudi Arabia, and perfectly aligns to the kingdom’s drive to offer increasingly diverse employment opportunities for Saudi nationals,” said Snehal Desai, global business director for Dow Water & Process Solutions. “This investment also complements our activities at the Dow KSA Research Centre at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), where our research focuses specifically on RO solutions, in combination with ultrafiltration pretreatment for seawater desalination.”